Stem Cell Success: Mice fuel debate on embryo cloning
By John Travis
A handful of mutant mice have fired up the debate over the cloning of human embryos to produce cells for medical use. After genetically engineering cells that had been generated by cloning mouse embryos, investigators have partially repaired the defective immune system of these animals.
The two new studies, which will appear in an upcoming Cell, represent the first evidence that the strategy dubbed therapeutic cloning could someday provide sick people with genetically matched cells, tissues, or organs, say the researchers. “We felt we needed to put some evidence on the table that this could indeed work,” says William M. Rideout III of the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass., a coauthor of one study.